NASCAR: Four Predictions For The Toyota – Save Mart 350 At Sonoma

Ed Szczepanski-USA TODAY Sports
Ed Szczepanski-USA TODAY Sports /
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Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports
The Dinger is known for his road course dominance. Expect him to be in Victory Lane when the Toyota – Save Mart 350 is finally over on Sunday. Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports /

Allmendinger Dominates Sonoma

If A.J. Allemdinger is going to make the Chase it’s going to be because he wins one of two races; either Sonoma on Sunday or Watkins Glen later on in the season.

Road courses are the Dinger’s specialty, and even with an average finish of 21.86 at Sonoma, he should still be a fan-favorite to win the race.

Not only did he win the pole for this race last year, proving that he knows how to get around this track extremely well, but he’s had solid season so far in 2016. Besides for a couple of Top 10 and Top 15 finishes, he also placed second for the STP 500 race at Martinsville.

For someone who was only known for road course races, Allmendinger has been improving as a driver overall and it will reflect even more on Sunday.

Of course there could be other issues for Allmendinger that would be out of his control, like his team messing up on pit road or a problem with his car. This has cost him races before on road courses and is part of the reason his average finish isn’t as good as you would expect from a road course racer.

He seems to either run well at Sonoma or gets caught up in an issue that makes him finish toward the end of the field.

Allmendinger has had more success at Watkins Glen over the years, but if everything aligns and it comes down to purely racing, expect the Dinger to be the one out in front at the end and to win his first road course race at Sonoma.

Next: Has Jamaal Charles Lost a Step?

What do you think will happen at Sonoma? Will Allmendinger win his way into the Chase or will another driver leave victorious on Sunday? Leave a comment and let us know and for more racing news head over to BeyondTheFlag.com.